After a winning month of May, the Tigers started June with nine losses in a row. They are 10 games under .500 in the weak AL Central, but new president of baseball operations Scott Harris sees signs of progress across the board.
"It’s already happening under the hood," Harris said Tuesday at a luncheon hosted by the Detroit Economic Club. "When you look at this team, I know we’re in a rough patch right now, but let’s not forget the progress that we’ve already seen in a couple months here."
After an ugly April, the Tigers went 16-11 in May, their first winning month in two years. Their turnaround was fueled by the philosophy Harris espoused at his introductory press conference last September: "We've started to take control of the strike zone in this organization." He referenced walks on both sides of ball as evidence.
Tigers hitters are up from 29th in walk rate (6.5%) last season to ninth (9.1%) this season. And Tigers pitchers are up from 19th in walk rate against (8.5%) to fifth (7.6%). The Tigers have also been more disciplined at the plate, up from 30th to 19th in chase rate. And they've been more aggressive on the mound, up from 19th to fifth in percentage of first pitch strikes.
"That’s progress," said Harris. "We can’t ignore that. What counts is winning games, of course, but those are the seeds of progress that lead to winning games.”
Harris also noted the Tigers have much better batted-ball data. Indeed, their hitters are up from 24th to ninth in hard-hit rate and their pitchers are up from 26th to 12th in hard-hit rate against. (They've made similar if smaller gains in barrel rates.) This progress has started to take hold in the pitching results, where the Tigers are up from 27th to 13 in batting average against and up from 21st to eighth in WHIP.
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As for the hitting results, well, the story hasn't changed. For the second year in a row, the Tigers are last in the majors in runs scored. They're also last in OPS (.652) and wRC+ (81). But Harris is encouraged by the Tigers' improved plate discipline and said "part of how we're going to hit for more power and score more runs in this organization" is by "knowing the pitches that you can do damage on, getting your A-swing off as many times as possible on those, and shutting it down for the rest."
Harris has also been pleased with the Tigers' fielding this season. While he noted "there was some criticism about our defense early" in the year, "I think what you’re seeing every night is we have some pretty dynamic defenders on the dirt and on the grass."
According to the metrics, the Tigers have plus defenders in players like Javier Baez, Matt Vierling and Akil Baddoo. And they're tied for second as a team in Outs Above Average.
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